razzamaztaz

Posts by razzamaztaz

Once upon a time, there were a kingdom called Collector’s Paradise. In this paradise all citizens were happy, the Rulers provided them with exciting new releases a few months apart, big base sets with splendid designs and well done photo work. Each collector cared to flip over the card and read stats or neat details about the specific player.

Today, the paradise is in ruins; memories of a long gone time linger in our heads, and the kingdom’s citizens are scattered. We have more or less one ruler who gets tickled by the fat wallets of rich collectors and ignores the More >

Some months ago, I wrote an article about buying boxes online and recommended a few places and people to buy from. It’s a hazardous world out there and risky to blindly buy boxes online from just about anyone. That article produced positive response, so now during the hot summer I decided to look closer on a few online stores.

We all have our favorites, but one that has grown considerably since being mentioned a few months ago is Nolan’s Sports Collectibles (nsccanada.com). At the time the seller, Ryan Dennis, merely was an alias (“nolandennis”) at eBay, but shortly thereafter, he started More >

I have wondered for months why collectors silently put up with the extremely high prices modern card products have. After all, it is one big lottery. It’s nice to have one or two super high-end products every year; something for us mortals to window shop at and for the more wealthy citizens to buy. But this year’s situation has stepped up a notch. We don’t only have The Cup and ITG Ultimate; we have Superlative, OPC Premier, Black, Masterpieces, and what not.

Take your pick, any high-end or mid-end product, and it’s all one cheap gigantic lottery. You have More >

Just learning The Cup is in fact released July 25 (according to trustworthy sources), I wonder what Upper Deck is really doing. Speaking to storeowners, I hear Upper Deck wants to keep it a secret so collectors instead will put their hard-earned money on presells of upcoming highend releases such as OPC Premier and Black. When that money is booked, The Cup is revealed, and collectors empty their pockets scrapping for more, because The Cup is still THE product to get when it concerns rookies and autographed ultra highend More >

There are two camps within hockey collectors: Those who send cards for grading, and those who don’t. The majority is the latter, and the majority often consider the first group as somewhat picky, peculiar nerds. This article won’t be about the art of grading, but the art of judging condition of a card based on grades.

I have found that collector’s ways of dealing with this matter is sloppy and ignorant to say the least. Since I don’t want to draw the conclusion everyone is trying to make their cards better (which equals more value) it most likely comes More >

We know the trend ever since the start of this new century; more jersey cards, more autographs and more rookies and lower serial numbers for each.

Anyone else but me quite tired of it?

Buying a box ”guaranteed” to contain two or three jersey cards, or even one jersey card per pack, frankly, is as thrilling as the little burp you allow yourself after breakfast at home. We’ve come to a point where a common game-used card simply is worthless. I suspect per paper weight, an envelope might cost more. It doesn’t matter if Beckett claims they’re worth $5 or More >